NHL Salary Cap to Tend to Flyers Needs

It's been reported through out the past month that the NHL salary cap may be raised greatly from where it now sits at 58 million. Today endless tweets are raining down that the cap will be bumped up to 64 million, a increase of 5 million. And what team does this help the most? How about our Philadelphia Flyers who are struggling to move salaries to make room for Ilya Bryzgalov. Not anymore?

This helps the Flyers out in every way. Now they can sign Bryzgalov to what is expected to be a 5 million dollar contract - the two sides meet again tomorrow - and still be cap compliant. However, tight up against the cap is not where the Flyers want to be this season. Jvr, Coburn, Carle and Versteeg all need new contracts next summer. And this summer Leino, Nodl, Powe, O'Donnell and Carcillo are waiting on their renewals.

Seeing this situation someone still has to be on the move, but there is a bright side to this. The salary cap bumped up 5 million meaning the cap floor - how much a team must spend- also raised. Now teams must spend 48 million on their players salaries. Right now there are 19 teams whose players payroll is under the league minimum 48 million, list at bottom.

Moving players with big contract gets that much easier for the Flyers as now teams have to bulk up their salary responsibly. This could mean jumping on some of the Flyers who are on the trade block and whose value just went up.

Many are speculating that Nodl, Powe and Carcillo will now be in the team's target as they look to lock up some of their own free agents. Leino has also gained some steam as the team can now consider bring back their first line winger, who already said he would take a pay-cut to hang around Philly.

Teams Under 48M: Kings(47) Canucks(45) Sabres(44) Sens(44) Habs(42) Rangers(42) Leafs(41) Predators(40) Blues(39) Stars(38) JACKETS(37) Oilers(37) Lightning(37) Islanders(36) Jets(35) Avs(32) Coyotes(31) Hurricanes(31) PANTHERS(18)

Keep in mind these teams do not have a full 20 man roster, most teams around 40M+ should reach 48M by signing a full 20 man roster. Still look at Columbus at 37M and Florida at just 18M.